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Prayer of Dedication, 27 March 1836 [D&C 109]
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PRAYER,
At the Dedication of the Lord’s House in Kirtland, Ohio, March 27, 1836,—By JOSEPH SMITH, jr.
JS revelation of Jan. 1831 directed Latter-day Saints to migrate to Ohio, where they would “be endowed with power from on high.” JS Revelation of Dec. 1832 directed Saints to “establish . . . an house of God.” JS Revelation of 1 June 1833 chastened Saints...
More InfoLocated ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...
More InfoPresident of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
The presiding body of the church. From the day of the church’s organization on 6 April 1830, JS and Oliver Cowdery led the church in their capacity as elders. An 11 November 1831 revelation directed that “the duty of the president of the office of the high...
View GlossaryThe Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...
View GlossaryThanks
be to thy name, O Lord God of Israel, who keepest covenant and shewest mercy
unto thy servants, who walk uprightly before thee with all their hearts:
thou who hast commanded thy servants to build an house to thy name
in this place. (Kirtland.)
And now thou beholdest, O Lord, that so thy servants have done, accor ding
to thy commandment. And now we ask thee, holy Father, in the name of Jesus
Christ, the Son of thy bo som, in whose name alone salvation can be
administered to the children of men: we ask thee, O Lord, to accept of
this house, the workmanship of the hands of us, thy servants, which thou didst
command us to build; for thou knowest that we have done this work through
great tribulation: and out of our poverty we have given of our sub stance
to build a house to
thy name, that the Son of Man might have a place to manifest himself to his
people.
The sacred edifice in Kirtland, Ohio, since known as the Kirtland temple. Although the term temple in the early days of the church designated a category of buildings, the proper name applied to the structure in Kirtland was “House of the Lord.” JS and the...
View GlossaryLocated ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...
More InfoGenerally, a divine mandate that church members were expected to obey; more specifically, a text dictated by JS in the first-person voice of deity that served to communicate knowledge and instruction to JS and his followers. Occasionally, other inspired texts...
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And as thou hast said, in a revelation given unto us, calling us
thy friends, saying—“Call
your solemn as sembly, as I have commanded you; and as all have not
faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea,
seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom: Seek learning, even by study,
and also by faith.
Generally, a special church meeting, such as the meeting of the School of the Prophets on 23 January 1833 and the dedication of the House of the Lord in Kirtland, Ohio, on 27 March 1836. In particular, it referred to the meeting held in the House of the Lord...
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“Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish
a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith,
a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God: that
your in comings may be in the name of the Lord; that your out goings
may be in the name of the Lord: that all your sal utations may be in
the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands to the Most High.”
And now, holy Father, we ask thee to assist us, thy people with
thy grace in calling our solemn assembly, that it may be done to thy
honor, and to thy divine acceptance, and in a manner that we may be found
worthy, in thy sight, to secure a fulfilment of the promises which
thou hast made unto us thy people, in the revelations given unto us:
that thy glory may rest down upon thy people, and upon this thy house, which
we now dedicate to thee, that it may be sanctified and consecrated
to be holy, and that thy holy presence may be continually in this house;
and that all people who shall enter upon the threshhold of the Lord’s house
may feel thy power and be constrained to acknowledge that thou hast
sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness.
And do thou grant, holy Father, that all those who shall worship
in this house, may be taught words of wis dom out of the best books,
and that they may seek learning, even by study, and also by faith; as thou hast said; and
that they may grow up in thee and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost, and
be organized according to thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every
needful thing: and that this house may be a house of prayer, a house of fas ting,
a house of faith, a house of glory, and of God, even thy house: that all the
incomings of thy people, into this house, may be in the name of the
Lord; that all their outgoings, from this house, may be in the name of the
Lord; that all their salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with holy
hands, uplifted to the Most High; and that no unclean thing shall be
permitted to come into thy house to pollute it.
And when thy people transgress, any of them, they may speedily repent
and return unto thee, and find favor in thy sight, and be restored
to the blessings which thou hast ordained, to be poured out upon those who
shall reverence thee in this thy house.
And we ask thee, holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from
this house, armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them
and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them; and
from this place they may bear exceeding great and glorious tidings, in truth,
unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is thy work,
and that thou hast put forth thy hand, to fulfil that which thou has spo ken
by the mouths of thy prophets concerning the last days.
We ask thee, holy Father, to establish the people that shall worship
and honorably hold a name and standing in this thy house, to all generations,
and for eternity, that no weapon formed against them shall prosper; that he who
diggeth a pit for them shall fall into the same himself; that no combination
of wickedness shall have power to rise up and prevail over thy people,
upon whom thy name shall be put in this house: and if any people shall rise
against this people, that thine anger be kindled against them: and if they
shall smite this people, thou wilt smite them—thou wilt fight for
thy people as thou didst in the day of battle, that they may be delivered
from the hands of all their enemies.
We ask thee, holy Father, to confound, and astonish, and bring to
shame, and confusion, all those who have spread lying reports abroad
over the world against thy servant, or servants, if they will not repent when
the everlasting gospel shall be proclaimed in their ears, and that
all their works may be brought to nought, and be swept away by the
hail, and by the judgments, which
thou wilt send upon them in thine anger, that there may be an end to
lyings and slanders against thy people: for
thou knowest, O Lord, that thy servants have been in nocent before thee
in bearing record of thy name for which they have suffered these things; therefore
we plead before thee for a full and complete deliverance from under
this yoke. Break it off O Lord: break it off from the necks of thy
servants, by thy power, that we may rise up in the midst of this generation
and do thy work!
O Jehovah, have
mercy upon this people, and as all men sin, forgive the transgressions of
thy people, and let them be blotted out forever. Let the annointing
of thy ministers be sealed upon them with power from on high: let it
be fulfilled upon them as upon those on the day of Pentacost: let the gift of tongues be poured out upon
thy people, even cloven tongues as of fire, and the interpretation thereof. And let thy house
be filled, as with a rush ing mighty wind, with thy glory.
Put upon thy servants the testimony of the covenant, that when they
go out and proclaim thy word, they may seal up the law, and prepare the hearts of thy saints for all
those judgements thou art about to send, in thy wrath, upon the inhabitants
of the earth, because
of their transgressions, that thy people may not faint in the day of trouble.
And whatever city thy servants shall enter, and the people of that
city receive their testimony, let thy peace and thy salvation be upon
that city, that they may gather out of that city the righteous, that they
may come forth to Zion, or to her stakes, the places of thine appointment, with songs
of everlasting joy,—and until this be ac complished let not thy
judgments fall upon that city. [p. [1]]
In JS’s earliest revelations “the cause of Zion” was used to broadly describe the work JS was called to do. However, the term Zion was soon used more specifically to describe a community of believers who live in harmony and equality. The Book of Mormon explained...
View GlossaryThe ecclesiastical organization of church members in a particular locale. Stakes were typically large local organizations of church members; stake leaders could include a presidency, a high council, and a bishopric. Some revelations referred to stakes “to...
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JS, prayer of dedication, Kirtland, OH, 27 Mar. 1836; two pages; CHL.
Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...
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